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The Fright Before Christmas
"The Fright Before Christmas" is the thirtieth episode of the TV-series Danny Phantom. Danny hates the holiday season, being something of a scrooge, but will he change his mind once he receives a lesson on Christmas spirit from the Ghostwriter? Episode Recap Snow falls in Amity Park as Christmas approaches. Everyone is Christmas-shopping at Amity Park Mall, including the trio of friends. While Sam is in a chipper mood, Danny is annoyed. When she calls him out on his scrooge-like attitude, Tucker tells her about "the fight": Every Christmas, Maddie and Jack argue over the existence of Santa Claus, wreaking all sorts of havoc in Danny's life. Even as they're talking, they hear Maddie telling nearby children visiting the mall that Santa does not exist while Jack states otherwise. Frustrated, Danny flies to the Ghost Zone, destroying Christmas items to reduce stress. At the same time, the Ghost Writer has completed his Christmas poem "The Fright Before Christmas". Danny accidentally destroys the poem, but doesn't feel too bad due to his hatred of the holiday. Enraged at his behavior, GhostWriter writes a new book, "The Fright Before Christmas 2", starring Danny, and blasts him back to Amity Park where he's now stuck in a rhyming induced Christmas story where anything Ghost Writer writes comes true until Danny's lesson is learned. Wanting to know why Danny hates Christmas so much, Sam's question is answered when Tucker relates the story that every single Christmas, Danny's parents' argument over the existence of Santa usually ends with Danny getting the short end of the stick, leading to traumatic childhood memories. The Ghost Writer then turns all the reindeer at the mall into ghosts, leaving Danny to fight them off, destroying most of the mall in the process and causing everyone to blame him. At home, it's not any better as his parents still argue, causing him to finally explode and leave the house. As he turns ghost and begrudgingly flies away, presents float and trail behind him from the neighboring homes, angering everyone further, including his family and friends. To further cause trouble, the Ghost Writer brings all the toys to life. They all join together to form into a giant nutcracker toy. Danny blows it to pieces, but also destroys all the toys, which upsets everyone once again. The Ghost Writer adds further insult to injury by bringing all the Christmas trees to life and turning them into monsters as well, surrounding Danny. As he handles the monsters, the news reports of the mutant trees cause Jack to put up the Ghost Shield and Maddie to stop squabbling with her husband long enough to go out and save her son. Danny destroys the trees with his Ghostly Wail before turning human in time for his mother to come and claim him, both returning home. He enters the Ghost Zone to confront Ghost Writer at his home afterwards, but he types it so that Danny ends up in another place, one holding his ghostly foes. However, instead of a battle, the ghosts hold an "annual truce" according to which they do not fight on Christmas, instead befriending each other for the day. The Ghost Writer expects them to suspend the truce in order to attack Danny, but they do not, regarding the truce as equally applicable to half-ghosts. When Danny explains that Ghost Writer broke the truce, all the ghosts set out to attack him. The Ghost Writer, however, quickly writes away the truce, causing all the ghosts to battle one another instead. Danny then takes an orange to Walker's face, but since nothing rhymes with "orange", the writing spell wears off for the time being and the ghosts commence attack on Ghost Writer. Danny destroys his Quantum Keyboard and Ghost Writer is arrested by Walker and his cops, but Danny's still stuck in the poem and now he is forced to guide the story himself. While he is being driven to jail, Ghost Writer tells him that the poem is still not done until Danny's lesson is learned. Danny sadly leaves the Ghost Zone, without saying a word, and returns to the now depressing human world, as he recites the story in his mind. He sits down, ashamed and in sorrow - when his friends come to comfort him. There, he expresses his guilt over ruining Christmas, his speech causing all the presents to be fixed. Wanting to make things right, Danny and his friends, as well as his ghostly foes, all help return the gifts, Christmas trees, and other holiday items back to their rightful homes, restoring Christmas once and for all. Danny bids the ghosts a fond farewell afterwards and leaves for his own house where he apologizes for acting in spite, seeing the family celebrates Christmas their own way. Then all his ghostly enemies fly off via sleigh pulled by the ghost reindeer to which Jack and Maddie give chase, the latter finally believing in Santa Claus and Danny thinks that he has learned his lesson: "Everyone celebrates in the way of their choosing." The story ends with Ghost Writer in jail, with his now finished, new book (and teased by Walker by being given an orange). Allusions *'Title': A play on the seasonal poem The Night Before Christmas. But also a reference to Tim Burton's movie "The Nightmare Before Christmas". *When the writer brings the toys to life, "Space Wars" toys march which all look like Star Wars wookies, R2-D2s and stormtroopers. *Ghostwriter's appearance is very similar to Mort Rainey from the movie Secret Window. *When the Ghostwriter says "A clock and candlestick those I won't miss" may be a reference to Cogsworth (a clock) and Lumiere (a candle) from Disney's Beauty and the Beast. *The ghosts' annual truce on Christmas may be a reference to the Christmas truce that took place in 1914 during World War I. Trivia *Like the book The Night Before Christmas, the episode is almost entirely in rhyme. *On the Ghost Writer's keyboard, the letter M is located at the end of the middle row to the right of the letter L rather than on the lower row to the right of the N, as in most QWERTY keyboards. This may be a reference to Latham Sholes' 1878 QWERTY keyboard layout, in which the M is placed that way, though it is unlikely because the letters X and C in the Ghost Writer's keyboard are properly placed, unlike in Shole's layout, in which they are reversed. *This is the only episode that has a different song when the title card is shown. The usual song is replaced by one proper for the Christmas theme. *When Danny's enemies are seen in the Ghost Zone, Ember McLain and Walker are among the group. When they are seen again in Amity Park, those two are absent, and Desiree is then joining them. Walker was probably missing in Amity Park because he was busy with the Ghost Writer's arrest, but it is unknown why Desiree was missing first and why Ember was missing later. *It is revealed that the Manson family is Jewish and celebrate Hanukkah, as shown by the menorah sign in front of her house and the dreidel (one of the toys that form a monster nutcracker). *When Johnny 13 attacks Youngblood, the latter does not glow pink like the other ghosts. *When the main trio brings in a Christmas tree to the little boy's house, Sam's jacket can briefly be seen as red, instead of black. *During Danny's transformation, after the ghosts arrive in Amity, his ghost circles appear to be frozen. *The eight ghost reindeer created by Ghost Writer are named Spooky, Specter, Deathoof, Thrasher, Maimer, Vicious, Blood Antlers, and Slasher. *On his Facebook account, David Kaufman stated this is one of his favorite episodes. Goofs *At the end, as the ghosts help Danny, Spectra is seen in both of her forms: her shadow ghost form and her modified form from ''Doctor's Disorders'' — she is even seen picking up Christmas trees twice, in a different form each time. Incidentally, Technus is seen in both his normal and 2.0 form as well. *In the first occurrence of Danny meeting his enemies, Sidney Poindexter is taller than Bertrand. In the second one, however, it is the opposite. *When all of Danny's enemies are on the sleigh, the kid seen during the middle of this episode is in with them. *On the title card Ghost Writer's eyes are Red when in the episode they are shown Green. Category:Season Two Episodes Category:Episodes Category:Episodes that involve various ghosts Category:Episodes containing one-shot villains